The numbered list approach to blogging

1. Thank you, Marilee, for being the first contributor to the Poplar Springs 5k fund! Her donation coincided with a particularly fortuitous afternoon’s snaps of the Smith household animals, so here’s a photographic “thank you” from those worthies:

2. Thanks to: a.) the fact that my husband actually reads the Birchmere‘s occasional missives, b.) my friend Melanie’s quick response to a call to arms, and c.) my credit card, I can report that Mel, her sister and I are actually going to get to see Eddie Izzard. (John’s not interested, but thanks for noticing he’s not included). As my mom is fond of saying in reference to hot flashes, “Faint, but don’t fan: it’s a dead giveaway.”

3. In other theatrical news, we’re going to see Teller’s Macbeth this weekend at the Folger Theatre. I feel a bit ashamed to say that I have lived in the DC area for a total of over nine years and have never been to the Folger. Cultural cretin – that’s me.

4. Who thought of this daylight savings time palaver, anyway? And who thinks it’s a good idea to extend it? Clearly someone who doesn’t work for a living. Feh.

He then goes on to talk about how hard it is to work these phrases into conversation and how, in order to use them, he was forced to get a cat, mouse, table, chair and monkey and walk about in heavily wooded areas in France.

Aha! That is funny. I think my French classes were more form and words than specific sentences.

I highly recommend this series of Charlie’s, but you should know that Tor broke the first book into two: The Family Trade and Hidden Family. So if you read just the first, there’s no ending. There’s four books out and three more to come (two of those are another halved book).